-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Reclusive author J.D. Salinger has emerged , at least in the pages of court documents , to try to stop a novel that presents Holden Caulfield , the disaffected teen hero of his classic `` The Catcher in the Rye , '' as an old man .

J.D. Salinger has stayed out of the public eye for most of the past half century .

Lawyers for Salinger filed suit in federal court this week to stop the publication , sale and advertisement of `` 60 Years Later : Coming Through the Rye , '' a novel written by an author calling himself J.D. California and published by a Swedish company that advertises joke books and a `` sexual dictionary '' on its Web site .

`` The Sequel infringes Salinger 's copyright rights in both his novel and the character Holden Caulfield , who is the narrator and essence of that novel , '' said the suit , filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New York .

Published in 1951 , `` The Catcher in the Rye '' is an iconic take on teen alienation that is consistently listed among the greatest English-language novels ever written .

Salinger , 90 , who has famously lived the life of a recluse in New Hampshire for most of the past half-century , last published in 1965 . With the exception of a 1949 movie based on one of his early short stories , he has never authorized adaptations of any of his work , even turning down an overture from director Steven Spielberg to make `` Catcher '' into a movie .

`` There 's no more to Holden Caulfield . Read the book again . It 's all there , '' the court filing quotes Salinger as saying in 1980 . `` Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time . ''

The filing refers to the new book 's author as `` John Doe , '' saying that the name John David California probably is made up .

The first-time novelist 's biography on Amazon.com says California is the son of a Swedish mother and American father who was named after the state where he was born .

It claims he is a former gravedigger and triathlete who found a copy of Salinger 's novel `` in an abandoned cabin in rural Cambodia '' and that it helped him survive `` the most maniacal of tropical fevers and chronic isolation . ''

The Web site 's description of the book is written in the same choppy , first-person stream of consciousness that Salinger employs as Holden wanders the streets of New York . It describes a character , `` Mr. C , '' who flees his nursing home and `` embarks on a curious journey through the streets of New York . ''

The lawsuit names Swedish publisher Nicotext ; its offshoot , Windupbird Publishing Ltd. ; and California-based SCB Distributors as defendants .

The Web site for Nicotext advertises such books as `` The Macho Man 's -LRB- Bad -RRB- Joke Book '' and `` Give It To Me Baby , '' which it describes as an erotic `` flick book . ''

Marcia Paul , Salinger 's New York-based attorney , declined to speak on the record , citing her client 's private nature .

E-mail messages to Nicotext were not returned Wednesday .

Aaron Silverman , president of SCB Distributors , said the people behind the new book plan to defend it against the lawsuit .

`` We believe we have the right to distribute this book and the publishers believe they have the right to publish it , '' he said .

Silverman , whose company distributes books by about 150 publishers , called `` 60 Years Later '' a work of `` social science fiction , '' saying that California does n't plagiarize , but sets a well-known character in an alternate place and time -- as literature has done for centuries .

`` It 's amazing , '' he said of the book . `` If it was something else , or it felt like a knock-off or whatever , I would have told the publisher we would n't do it . But it 's really just amazing . ''

Despite his cloistered lifestyle , Salinger nods to the contemporary marketplace in the lawsuit , noting that , as of last week , '' ` The Catcher in the Rye ' currently sells more copies on Amazon.com than ` Harry Potter and the Sorcerer 's Stone , ' ` The DaVinci Code , ' ` To Kill a Mockingbird ' or ` Of Mice and Men . ' ''

A hearing in the case is expected Monday . Salinger 's lawyers will ask a judge to freeze publication of the book until a final ruling is made .

The book is already available in Europe and the United Kingdom , and is scheduled to be released in the United States in September . The lawsuit asks that sales be halted and that books already distributed be recalled and destroyed .

The argument is reminiscent of the legal tussle over the 2001 novel `` The Wind Done Gone , '' a parody of Margaret Mitchell 's `` Gone With the Wind '' told from the perspective of a slave .

Mitchell 's estate argued that the book , by novelist Alice Randall , infringed upon her copyright . But the 11th District U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in Randall 's favor , saying the book was protected as a parody of a well-known work .

Salinger 's lawyers say `` 60 Years Later '' deserves no such protection .

`` The sequel is not a parody and it does not comment upon or criticize the original , '' the lawsuit argues . `` It is a rip-off pure and simple . ''

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Lawsuit seeks halt to `` 60 Years Later : Coming Through the Rye ''

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J.D. Salinger says `` sequel '' infringes on copyright of his classic novel

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New author says he 's former gravedigger , discovered `` Catcher '' in Cambodia

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Court hearing scheduled for Monday in New York